Written by

Online

See a photo gallery of Russell Means’ life and images from his funeral procession @argusleader.com.

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Russell Means already was an historical figure when I met him about a dozen years ago. The American Indian Movement and the Wounded Knee occupation always are going to be the lens through which people see him.

I suppose you can wear something like that as proudly as a regal mantle or consider it a can tied to your tail. Maybe both.

Great causes don’t come with an instruction manual, and having the ability to blow up an old order in an effort to replace it with a better one doesn’t guarantee you can guide where the shrapnel falls. For Means to find himself in his early 30s an eloquent spokesman and a leader in the sprawling and dynamic enterprise of asserting tribal identities and sovereign rights no doubt left in its wake much he was proud of and much he regretted. Certainly over the years people who knew Means have not been shy about pointing out to me where he failed to measure up.

But if first impressions are a way to sneak up on the truth, my enduring sense of Russell Means is someone who used his public image as a tool without being captive to it, and behind the persona was a delightfully hospitable guy.

It was getting on toward late afternoon on the Pine Ridge Reservation and I was hoping to contact Russell Means, AIM icon, for a story. I got him on the phone. Rather than try to direct me to his ranch, he suggested meeting at a store that was easier for me to find. After making introductions in the parking lot, he said, “follow me,” and drove off in a white pickup that had seen its share of ranch work.

We ended up back at his house, and after concluding my interview with the professional Russell Means, so to speak, there we were, two guys sitting at the kitchen table.

We began telling stories in the way people do to get to know each other. The conversation branched off to politics, philosophy. Weighty opinions were delivered.

Means’ wife, Pearl, busy with her own work, swept by from time to time to offer a sentence or two. Her manner made it clear she knew her husband was a talker, and at one point she actually told me “he can do this for hours.”

(Page 2 of 2)

She was right.

Over the years, I relied on Means for historical perspective and insight for stories on tribal matters. But my contact with him always seemed to turn into something more. In relating the incident where an academy award presentation for Marlon Brando turned into an ad hoc tribute to the Wounded Knee occupiers, Means described what it was like to see that on television at Wounded Knee.

An armed standoff, and you guys are watching TV? I asked.

Means flashed a mischievous grin.

“It was Oscar night,” he said.

As the country became aware of its tribes and their history, Means was adept at working the dominant culture side of the street that included the national press and Hollywood, and he profited from it with an acting career. But it distanced him from Pine Ridge.

At a debate I attended before a tribal election, it was evident how much he wanted to be the Oglala Sioux Tribe president. After he lost, I was stuck by the irony this most famous tribal activist was never going to be held in the highest esteem by his own tribe.

The last time I saw Means was at the Wounded Knee conference at Augustana College this year. There were some testy moments as a few conference participants attempted to recast what is now accepted history. But for the most part, Means and the others who had been at Wounded Knee almost seemed to be a group of hall of famers who had come back to be honored at an old timers’ game.

He was noticeably gaunt, the lingering effects of pneumonia, he said. But he was still compelling as a public speaker. He was friendly, lively and as widely focused as ever as a conversationalist.

And now he’s gone.

In whatever lies ahead, Russell Means might be called to account. My sense is that he will atone for whatever he has to atone for. Then at some point there will be a kitchen table, a big one. All manner of folks will be sitting around it, the only criteria for admission being an appreciation of great stories. There will be a place for Russell Means. He will be invited to speak.

Best put on a big pot of coffee. Everybody is going to be there awhile.